Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • April 2014
23
I gathered that this was a frustration to him, since
he had often expressed as much (see the quote above).
The September 1979 issue of
The Instrumentalist
included Fennell’s conducting guide to Robert Russell
Bennett’s
Suite of Old American Dances
, in which
Fennell describes Bennett’s remarkable ability to write
out parts directly from a condensed score. (In a later
footnote, Fennell mentions that Karl King wrote his
famous marches in the same fashion—directly from
a short score with no full score having ever existed.)
This discussion is really the prelude to the work that
still needs to be done. The state of Texas is home, as we
all know, to the finest and most competitive public school
music programs in the world (Thank You UIL) as well as
to the most supportive and functional music associations
to be found anywhere in our profession (Thank You
TMEA, TBA, ATSSB, TODA, TCDA and TMAA). We
Texans must take the lead to ensure that this work
continues and serves the needs of all of our communities.
To that end, I would like to encourage the readers of
this to give serious thought to the title that prefaced this
article.
What composition would you have performed
at UIL if you had only had a full score? Send your title
(or list of titles) to the email address shown below and
let us see what can be done to spur the publishers into
action, or if the publishers show no interest, see what
can be done to create a full score (with permission, of
course) to circulate separately.
Send your suggestions
to Mark Rogers at
mrogers2@satx.rr.com
or send me
an email by way of the website of The Heart of Texas
Concert Band
http://www.heartoftexasconcertband.org
.
The professionalism of the work in which we are
engaged will only increase, and the entire band world
with thank us for what we have done.
APPENDIX
Here is a partial listing of full score editions that have appeared in
recent years from a variety of publishers:
• Gustav Holst
1st Suite in E-fat, 2nd Suite in F
• Vaughan Williams
Toccata Marziale
• Gordon Jacob
An Original Suite (full score edition commissioned
by the American Bandmasters Association Educational Project
Committee)
• Robert Russell Bennett
Suite of Old American Dances and
Symphonic Songs for Band
• Percy Grainger
Lincolnshire Posy
(Fennell edition)
• Samuel Barber
Commando March
• Joseph Willcox Jenkins
American Overture for Band
(full score
edition commissioned by the ABA Educational Project Committee)
• Morton Gould
American Salute
• Leroy Anderson
A Christmas Festival
• Alfred Reed
Greensleeves
• Sullivan/Mackerras/Duthoit
Pineapple Poll
I f a FULL SCORE was Avai lable, I Would Play that Piece for Contest !
During my 18-year tenure at Southern Music
Company, the following editions (all with full scores)
were produced:
• Smetana/Cacavas
The Moldau
• Chabrier/Cailliet
España
• Sousa
Three Quotations, Tales of a Traveler, The
Last Days of Pompeii, At the Movies
(concert band
suites by Sousa)
, The U.S. Field Artillery, The White
Rose, The National Game, The Picadore, The Golden
Star, The Rose, Shamrock and Thistle, Easter Monday
on the White House Lawn
and
Humoresque on
Gershwin’s Swanee
• Alfred Reed
Chorale Prelude in E Minor, Ballade
for Alto Saxophone and Band, Ode for Trumpet, The
Crowning Glory, and Serenade for Clarinet and Band.
Many readers will know that Southern Music Company’s publishing division was actively engaged in breathing life into older
concert band works through the creation of new editions that included full scores and newly engraved parts. Since the February 2012
departure of SMC from San Antonio I have focused my energy on my role as the conductor of the Heart of Texas Concert Band, which
has turned the center of my full score activities towards the repertory played by community bands. This has led to the creation of full
scores to such items as John Cacavas’ setting of
The Christmas Song,
Morton Gould’s
Serenade of Carols
and the set of pieces known
collectively as “Holiday Music,” including
Halloween, The First Thanksgiving, Home for Christmas, Easter Morning
and
Fourth of July.
I
have also constructed a full score to Robert Russell Bennett’s setting of Irving Berlin’s
White Christmas
and two of Bennett’s Rodgers and
Hammerstein medleys—
The Sound of Music
and
The King and I.
Of note to those looking for pieces for African American History Month
are full scores to W.C. Handy’s
Go Down Moses
and
The Hesitation Blues.
In addition, a handful of full scores exist that were at one time available from their publishers but which have mysteriously disappeared
from the published sets. These include full scores to Weinberger’s
Polka and Fugue from Schwanda
and Humperdinck’s
Prayer and Dream
Pantomime
from Hänsel and Gretel. Both of these last two items circulate fairly widely in photocopies.
Acknowledgements: My thanks to my colleagues and supporters who read early drafts of this article and offered valuable suggestions
to make it read more smoothly and help get my point across. Among these are James Keene, Richard Floyd, Robert Floyd, Glenn Richter,
Ferd Vollmer, Mike Olson, James Worman, John Faraone and my loving wife of nearly 38 years, Sudie Rogers.